


The Luna

by DhampirsDrinkEspresso



Series: Moon Queen [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Blood and Gore, F/M, Gore, M/F/M Romance but no smut, Mild Gore, Multi, Muteness, Past Abuse, Probably Rated Too High, Rating High for Gore, References to Revenge Killing, Scars, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Sign Language, Threesome - F/M/M, Violence, Werewolf, Werewolf Ben Solo, Werewolf Kylo Ren, Werewolf Rey, Wolf Pack, breylo - Freeform, references to murder, references to past abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:34:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24506266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DhampirsDrinkEspresso/pseuds/DhampirsDrinkEspresso
Summary: He’d heard the stories. They all had. The legend of the Luna was as well-known to wolf pups as the Brothers Grimm were to human children.But that was all it was supposed to be. A story. A myth that maybe had some sort of moral or provided hope in hard times.The Luna wasn’t real.Except she was.Very real.Very pretty.And she had freckles.Ben Solo gets a call from his worried cousin Randy. Ben's twin brother Kylo is missing and they need to find him, immediately.Rey expected a quiet night until she found a nearly naked man by the dumpster, and was suddenly faced with her very own werewolf pack and an ancient prophecy.
Relationships: Kaydel Ko Connix/Randy the Intern (Undercover Boss: Starkiller Base), Matt the Radar Technician/Rose Tico, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Kylo Ren, Rey/Kylo Ren/Ben Solo
Series: Moon Queen [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1817212
Comments: 12
Kudos: 61





	The Luna

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'd, so all mistakes are mine (and I'm sure there are plenty--sorry in advance).
> 
> I set out to write a super short crack!fic but instead I got...this. Apparently werewolves are VERY SERIOUS BUSINESS for me.

6:42 PM.

Tuesday.

That was when he got the call. The one that was going to change his life. Not that he knew it yet.

Well, technically it was the second call, the one that popped up as waiting at 6:43, while his cousin was giving him the news that sent a shock of icy terror through him.

“Kylo’s missing.”

“What?” The word came out as more of a growl than anything and he heard Randy gasp, whimpering low in his throat. “What do you mean, Kylo’s missing? How did he get out?”

“I…I don’t know. I came home and the door was open and he’s just…gone. Matt’s already out looking for him.”

“I’ll be there in 20 minutes. You better pray he’s okay.”

He hung up on his cousin, ignoring the notification that whatever unknown number had called him had also left a voicemail. Fucking scam artist, probably.

Ben Solo remembered the defining moments in his life—the times his reality completely shifted, usually for the worse, leaving him with clean up duty in the wake of whatever shitstorm had blown through this time.

The day his uncle left, taking his cousins and moving them across the country, abandoning their home territory and tearing them away from the family. The moment he had known had been when Uncle Luke had looked at him, given that tight smile, before telling Ben’s parents about the private academy he was founding, at an old abandoned summer camp. Ben was the one who had to tell Kylo. That…had not gone well.

The day his parents announced their first divorce, it was over ice cream sundaes and uncomfortable, forced cheer at their favorite restaurant. Ben didn’t eat ice cream anymore after that.

The day Han Solo had proposed to his ex-wife and they had eloped (again) had been bright and sunny, a perfect beach day. Ben never went to the beach again.

The summer they spent at Uncle Luke’s should have been one of the best ever—finally reunited with Matt and Randy, no parents hovering nearby, and Luke always tucked away in his cabin or out hiking somewhere. Instead it had turned into an 8-week dominance battle Ben wanted no part in but couldn’t avoid.

The day his parents revealed they had opted for their second divorce, Ben and Kylo had just come home from having their measurements taken for graduation gowns, and having senior pictures made. Kylo skipped graduation. Ben wished he had as well.

The day Ben left for college, he knew something was off with his brother. At the time he had thought maybe it was just because it was the first time they had ever been separated. It wasn’t.

The night Kylo was arrested for starting a brawl after Snap Wexley’s 21st birthday party, Ben was the one to bail him out, but Kylo left with Dr. Snoke, his college advisor. Ben didn’t see his twin brother again for four years.

Snoke had been the worst of it. The clean up from that was never ending. What that man had done…Ben shook his head. Snoke’s death had been too clean.

Ben barked out a curse at his own brooding and walked faster. He didn’t have time to dwell on the memories. Kylo was _missing._

Rey squinted at the note in her hand, as if that might make it more legible somehow. She looked back up at him and wrinkled her nose. “Your penmanship is _terrible_.” The man beamed down at her, as if she’d given him the greatest compliment ever. She looked at the paper again. That was definitely a capital B. And that mark might be an e…but was that an r? M?

Oh. N.

B-e-n.

“Ben?”

He nodded, smiling again and seeming excited as his hands fluttered.

No.

Wait.

“Oh, you’re signing!”

He froze, looked down at his own hands as if he hadn’t realized what he was doing, then shrugged and nodded.

“I’m sorry, I don’t…I only know a little bit, for my nephew. He’s almost 2, so it’s mostly things like more, or cracker, or stop.” He was staring at her hands, seemingly fascinated. “I…I know the alphabet? If you go slowly I can maybe…”

She trailed off as he beamed at her again and nodded his assent. He stared at his own hands again, brow furrowed, before slowly spelling out K-Y-L-O and pointing to himself. Then B-E-N, and B-R-O-T-H-E-R, before he pointed back to the hasty scribbles on the note paper.

Numbers.

There were numbers.

“Is this your brother’s phone number?”

Kylo nodded and smiled again before slumping back down on the bar stool as Rey went behind the bar and grabbed the phone. The line beeped like he was on another call, so Rey left a quick message and returned to Kylo. Things were slow tonight, no customers to speak of, so it was just Rey and the new short order cook, Mitaka, working the last few hours.

Rey smiled up at Kylo. “So, are you hungry?” He nodded an emphatic yes and she laughed. “Burger?” Another nod. Rey turned to the kitchen window to find Mitaka already working on it.

Three hours. They’d been looking for almost 3 hours and found no sign of Kylo. Matt had checked the hospitals, police station, and sheriff’s office. Randy had been through all the parks and local stores. Ben was walking the neighborhood—again—in a grid, all senses attuned to some hint of his brother’s presence.

Nothing.

He could feel the anger building.

Anger at Matt, for leaving Kylo alone when he _knew_ Randy was running late. At Randy for not being home on time. At Kylo for wandering off in the first place.

And mostly at himself, for not being strong enough, good enough…just not being enough, period.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he grabbed at the device. It was a text message from Randy, just checking in and confirming there was still no news. He was about to put it away when his slight OCD about not having unread notifications kicked in and he pulled up his voicemail. His finger was poised over delete when he looked at the length of the message, noting it was unusually long for the usual scam auto-dial calls but too short for a pocket dial. He would never be sure why, exactly, he chose to listen to the message at that moment, but he would _always_ be grateful that he had.

The woman’s voice was bright and happy, with a hint of concern and a British accent he found soothing, somehow.

“Hello, Ben, ah, Mr. Solo. My name is Rey, at Jakku Lounge, on the corner of 1st and Main streets. Your brother, Kylo, is here and gave me your number. He’s safe, but if you could come get him, I think that would be best. Cheers.”

He listened to the message twice more before calling Matt and Randy and giving them the information, telling them to meet him in the parking lot, just in case…

Ben just barely managed to stop himself from hurling his phone down the street once he was done. If he’d only checked his messages earlier…

Ben shook his head, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching him before he _ran._

Rey playfully smacked at Kylo’s hand as his fingers attempted to steal the last mozzarella stick from her plate. “Hey, that’s mine!” Kylo made a face and gestured at his plate, then pointed at the traces of ketchup on hers. “Fine, yes, I stole some of your chips, but it’s not the same! Cheese is sacred!” She waved the deep-fried treat as she gestured, and Kylo leaned in, neatly biting off about a third of it. He smirked as he chewed, giving her a mock-stern look as he signed _share._ Rey laughed and shoved the rest into her mouth before he could steal another bite.

Mitaka had cleaned up and gone home for the night, hesitating at the door and asking several times if she was sure she was okay with locking up alone, his eyes nervously flicking toward Kylo and away again before he looked down at his feet. She’d rolled her eyes and ordered him out, tone firm. When she’d looked back at Kylo he’d been studying her, face caught between surprise and intent concentration…and a spark of interest she wasn’t sure how to interpret.

She recalled the moment she’d found him in the alleyway out back. She was taking the trash out and heard what sounded like a whimper. Thinking it was a stray dog, maybe lost or hurt and scared, she’d approached, and shrieked with the tall man had appeared, barefoot and wearing only a pair of plaid boxer shorts.

For whatever reason (possibly the scars that littered his body, covering him from head to toe), she’d brought him inside and found him something to wear (all of it too small but he hadn’t complained) and she hadn’t bothered to call the authorities.

Maybe some part of her had known even then how important he was going to be to her.

After lowering the lights and locking all but the front door so Kylo’s brother could get in, Rey returned to her spot at the end of the bar and grabbed her burger. She’d put up with all of Mitaka’s whining and whimpering as long as he kept cooking like this. She took a big bite and moaned, eyes fluttering shut as she chewed and swallowed. When her eyelids fluttered open, she found Kylo staring at her, eyes dark. “What? It’s good.” She took another bite, smaller this time, and chewed a little more slowly, maintaining eye contact with Kylo and silently daring him to comment. He looked away first and she smiled as she sipped at her lemonade. They ate in companionable silence a little longer, attempting to sneak bites off one another’s plates without getting caught until the moment with the last mozzarella stick.

He stiffened and turned, sliding to his feet and facing the door as it was flung open, a gruff voice shouting his name. Without conscious thought, Rey was around the bar, one hand shoving Kylo behind her as she stared down the intruder. It was instinctive to protect him, even from this man who was so very obviously his brother—twin brother, at that. She glared mutinously as Ben and two other men came closer. “Stop right there. This is my t—my place, and I don’t care for your attitude.”

Even Rey was shocked when it worked, all three men freezing in place and staring at her. She could feel tremors from where Kylo was pressed against her back, feel the huff of his breath on her skin as his chin came down to rest on her shoulder, presumably staring up at his brother (brothers? Maybe? They all certainly looked enough alike, even though the other two men were blond). Was he? He _was_. Kylo was _laughing._ Rey shifted, widening her stance and moving just enough that they weren’t really touching anywhere other than his chin on her shoulder.

She was readying herself to fight. This tiny slip of a woman at least a decade younger was glaring up at him and ordering him around and he was _letting_ her do it. Ben tried to calm his breathing, tried desperately to regain some equilibrium from where the world had suddenly shifted on its axis when she told him to stop. His brother was grinning at him over her shoulder, _laughing_ at the way Ben and their cousins had frozen at her command.

She took a step forward and Ben’s nostrils flared, brain rushing to break down the components of her scent.

_Female._

_Wolf._

_Alpha._

“Luna.”

He didn’t realize he’d said it out loud until her eyes widened and she stumbled back, head shaking back and forth wildly as she repeated no, over and over again, until she backed into Kylo who simply straightened his spine, standing at his full height behind her, one hand on her shoulder and the other at her waist, keeping her balanced as she stared at Ben in terror, struggling to breathe.

Matt and Randy fell to their knees behind him and Ben followed suit, holding her eyes as he fell to one knee. He didn’t break eye contact as he dipped forward in a bow, then shifted down onto both knees. He never looked away as he tipped his head back, offering his throat.

Rey cried out, trying to tear herself away from Ben’s eyes, from Kylo’s hold on her.

This couldn’t be happening.

Not here.

Not now.

She’d run, fled halfway around the world trying to escape the fate her grandfather had insisted she was born for.

Wolves the world over had a shared myth, a legend, a fairy story about a natural born alpha female, a Wolf Queen, who would rule over them all, unite the packs into a single unit. United, the Wolves would rule the world.

Her grandfather’s plan had been to rule them all himself, by ruling over her. She’d grown up hearing the story, how one day she would find her fated mate, an alpha in his own right, and come into her full power.

How she would know as soon as she saw him, how he would submit to her rule willingly.

How he would only be the first.

How he would call her by her title, would call her Luna.

Luna.

They were the Wolves. She was the Moon.

Rey screamed as she fell, Kylo’s reflexes the only thing that stopped her from hitting the floor as he caught her, swinging her up into his arms. Ben could only watch, unable to move yet.

This was…unexpected.

He’d heard the stories. They all had. The legend of the Luna was as well-known to wolf pups as the Brothers Grimm were to human children.

But that was all it was supposed to be. A story. A myth that maybe had some sort of moral or provided hope in hard times.

The Luna wasn’t _real_.

Except she was.

Very real.

Very pretty.

And she had freckles.

Kylo shifted uncomfortably, looking expectantly at his brother.

Ben sighed, slowly standing and very intently not thinking too much about the way he was trembling. Or why. Definitely not thinking about the thrum of recognition or the resounding chorus of ‘Mate. Luna. Mate.’ Running through his head.

He wasn’t the natural born alpha, anyway. Kylo was older. By 7 minutes according to the clock, or one day based on their birthdays. Ben’s eyes skittered away from his brother, away from the woman cradled in his arms. He needed to get a hold on himself. Kylo glared at him, shifting again and impatiently tapping his foot. Ben paused, finally taking in his brother’s attire. Thick grayish white socks, comically short sweatpants, and a ratty t-shirt that that stopped nearly two inches above the elastic waistband of the pants. The seams on the shirt seemed to be threatening to simply disintegrate at any moment.

“You went out without pants again, didn’t you?” Kylo rolled his eyes and huffed, lifting Rey toward him. Did he want…?

“No. Not gonna happen, I am not touching her.” Kylo growled at him, the rumbling noise low enough in his chest that the damage to his vocal cords didn’t affect it much. “Fine! Whatever! Just give her to me, then.” Kylo smirked as he deposited Rey in Ben’s waiting arms, his expression widening and dimples showing as he watched his brother gently shift until her head rested against his shoulder, staring down at her like he was seeing the sun for the first time in his life.

Kylo tapped on the bar top, getting Ben’s attention before his hands flew into action.

“Wait, wait! Kylo, slow down, I can’t…no, no, we are NOT taking her home with us!” Kylo glared and growled at him again.

_We can protect her better there._

“She seems to be doing just fine on her own. Did you see how she was going to challenge me? To protect you?”

 _Exactly. She doesn’t know better. All instinct. If I found her others will._ Ben closed his eyes, feeling the edge of a migraine threatening to bloom into being. He opened them again when Kylo clapped his hands. _You know they’ll come._

_Phasma._

_Hux._

_PRYDE._

Ben flinched, unconsciously tightening his hold on Rey.

“It should be her decision. She doesn’t even know us. We don’t even know where she lives, if she has a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a family somewhere wondering why she isn’t home yet.”

Kylo rubbed a hand across his face in irritation before pointing at a plain wooden door next to the kitchen and then pointing up. _She lives upstairs. No boyfriend. Brothers and nephew are only family._

“How do you know that?”

_We talked. A lot. While we waited for you. We need to take her, Ben. Keep her safe._

“Kylo, I can’t just kidnap a woman and take her home with us.”

_Then ask her if she wants to stay or go._

“Huh?” Kylo pointed and Ben followed his finger looking down to find Rey quietly studying him. “Hi.”

Rey blinked. “Hello.” She looked around the room, noting Randy and Matt still kneeling in the floor before glancing back up at Ben. “Um, you should probably, you know, put me down, now.”

“Probably.” He didn’t though, just kept staring at her for what should have been an uncomfortably long time.

“Why are they still on the ground?” she asked, gesturing vaguely towards his cousins.

“Are they? I don’t know.”

“Um, we kind of…can’t,” Randy said.

“What?” Rey and Ben said at the same time, the shock enough to prompt him to finally put her down, hands hovering close in case she lost her balance.

“We can’t fucking _move,”_ Matt ground out, teeth clenched.

“Huh…that’s new,” Rey said. She caught Kylo moving in her peripheral vision, glancing his way in time to catch the sign for ‘tell.’

“Oh, OH! Sorry. Um, you can get up.” She didn’t think it would work, considering how ridiculous this all was. But sure enough, the two men slowly stood, the one with glasses glaring at her the entire time. Or maybe that was just his face. The men in this family were certainly good at glowering. It was levels beyond RBF. She stepped forward, hand out to shake, opting for a human style greeting. “I’m Rey.”

“Randy,” the one with straight hair that seemed to have been smashed down by a hat said. “This is my brother Matt.”

“They’re our cousins,” Ben said from behind her. Close behind her. Rey started slightly. Why hadn’t she heard or sensed him moving? Kylo appeared beside her. She hadn’t noticed him moving, either.

She _always_ noticed.

This was bad.

Very, very bad.

Rey tensed, preparing to order them out and flee to her upstairs apartment, but she never got the chance as the front windows shattered in a rain of splintered wooden frame and brightly colored glass and she suddenly found herself practically buried under the combined weight of all four men. Someone groaned in pain, and something hot and wet dripped onto her face. All Rey could smell other than the scent of the four men was blood and smoke.

Movement.

There was movement all around her, little sounds of joints and tendons popping, a low groan growing and changing, spiraling into an enraged howl. She’d never been this close to anyone else when they shifted forms before. It was…really disgusting, actually. She struggled to breathe, as whoever was directly over her moved, momentarily bearing down on her chest. He moved and there was an apologetic whine, followed by the swift brush of a lupine tongue over her cheek.

Randy. Somehow, she just _knew_ the silvery gray wolf was Randy. Rey struggled to sit up as they left her, bounding out the gaping holes where the window glass used to be.

If the silvery gray was Randy, the darker gray with black around his eyes and muzzle must be Matt. Because Ben and Kylo were black. Solid, inky black and _massive._ No one would ever mistake them for domesticated dogs or even natural wild wolves. She could tell them apart, despite their identical size and markings, even without seeing bald patches around the worst of Kylo’s scars.

She moved slowly to the doorway, the smell of smoke growing stronger.

Oh, right.

Fire.

The building was on fire.

Rey felt her anger grow. A Molotov cocktail? Really? What kind of immature _bullshit_ was this? She went for the fire extinguisher first, making quick enough work of the flames licking across the hardwood floor. There were sirens in the distance, apparently someone had bothered to call it in. A little surprising in this part of town.

She shook her head, let the red canister drop to the floor, and slammed open what was left of the door, stalking outside with a deadly grace even she hadn’t known she possessed. There were two unknown Wolves there, still in human form, surrounded by her—no _Ben’s_ —pack.

Still, even outnumbered they were holding their own, particularly with the shifted wolves injured and exhausted from the explosion and the quick shift. She could see at least 2 shards of glass sticking out of Kylo’s back, blood slowly seeping into his dark fur and dripping to the pavement below him. He must have been on top when they all covered her, taking the brunt of the explosion and the rain of glass and fire.

One of the strangers darted forward, swinging what looked like a baseball bat at Randy. He almost managed to dart back out of the way, but not before the bat made contact with his back. He collapsed to the pavement with a whine, legs twitching. Matt darted in with a growl, hovering over his brother and advancing slowly on the blonde woman wielding the weapon.

A flash of metal glinted in the lone light still working in the small parking lot.

Silver. The woman had a bat with silver spikes embedded in it. No wonder Randy couldn’t get back up. Rey felt her own growl rumbling up from deep inside as the woman drew back for another strike, this time at Matt.

_No._

Matt fell to the ground, half over his brother and the woman turned to where a red- haired man was lunging in at Ben and Kylo, short, silver edged blades in each hand. Rey growled again as Kylo yelped, turning on the woman with a snarl and Ben darted in, taking the slash of a blade along his side as his teeth snapped around the man’s arm. Rey heard the crack of bone from where she was, and the man swung again, a blade aimed for each brother in what looked to be killing blow, despite one of his arms being broken.

_Mine._

She’d never managed it before, never truly embraced her animal form as she only allowed herself partial shifts. She’d always said it was the pain. Her grandfather insisted she was just weak, holding herself back.

There was no pain this time.

It was seamless, really. One moment she was Rey the girl, lunging across the pavement, and the next she had slipped her skin, Rey the Wolf simply bursting forth in a flurry of shredded fabric and snow-white fur.

It seemed to happen in slow motion. One moment the spikes on the bat and the twin blades were swinging down, threatening to end everything before it could even begin and the next…well, the next Rey was just _there_.

She was smaller than Ben or Kylo, probably smaller than Matt and Randy, even, yet she managed to somehow seem to take up all the available space, teeth and claws everywhere at once and the two strangers… _stopped fighting?_

Rey’s teeth snapped just in front of the woman’s throat, barely pulling back from what would have been a very messy and immediate death.

There were tears running down the woman’s face and she trembled as she knelt on the ground. “I didn’t know. Oh, God, I didn’t know, he never told us.” She stared at Rey in something akin to awe, one hand coming up as if to touch her before falling back to her side.

The man was more reserved, mouth a tight line on his face, but he’d dropped his blades. He looked around him, studying the rest of her pack-

( _yes…mine…pack…my pack…protect…)_

-before rolling onto his back, eyes closed as he waited for her to kill him. Driven more by instinct than anything, Rey’s jaws lowered, open wide over his neck, before she drew back, accepting his submission.

She turned, trusting the pair wouldn’t be stupid enough to be an immediate threat. Her pack needed her. Still running on animal instinct Rey allowed herself to slip back into human form, shivering as the night breeze caressed her bare skin. She needed something sharp. She glanced around, frowning at the silver blades. They would work, but she’d likely do permanent harm to herself which wouldn’t help anyone. Kylo must have moved, because the glass in his back caught some stray light, glinting at her as he struggled to breathe. That would work.

“This is going to hurt,” she whispered, kneeling beside him and grasping the largest of the shards, pulling it out and wincing as the razor edge cut into her hand in the process. There, easy enough. She pressed her hand against the wound. “Please, please, please let this work, it has to work, it _will_ work” she muttered, unsure whether she was giving herself a pep talk or praying to some deity she’d never even believed in until this night. It seemed like it took forever but eventually the bleeding slowed and the other bits of glass began working their way back out of his flesh as his body’s natural healing kicked into overdrive.

Next was Ben. The gash on his side was long but shallow and seemed to be the worst of his injuries. She repeated the process, pressing her bleeding palm against him. It was quicker this time, and she watched in combined disgust and fascination as his flesh knit back together.

For Randy she had to cut her hand again, the original cut closing by the time she reached him. He was conscious, and had shifted back to human form, unable to hold his other shape with so much damage to his spine. His eyes were bright with fever from the silver poisoning, and tears for his brother. “No,” he said as she reached out, shoving her hand down. “Matt. Matt, he’s not breathing. Matt first.”

She didn’t argue, just gripped the glass shard and pressed her hand against the only wound she could see, a laceration over his ear, and behind it his skull was misshapen, caved in where he’d taken the hit. She forced herself to look, to keep her eyes open, fought down the urge to gag and vomit at the sight of what she was certain was brain tissue. Instead she wrapped her other hand around the glass. Two wounds, twice the blood.

She didn’t realize she was crying until Ben wrapped his arms around her, trying to pull her away from his cousin. “It’s over, Rey. He’s gone. You have to let go, Sweetheart. Please.”

“NO! I can do this! I can! I know I can!”

He began dragging her back and she fought, smacking at him with one bloody hand, snarling and snapping her teeth as she squirmed and dragged her way back to Matt.

“Rey, it’s okay, you tried but it was too late.” She glared at Randy, resisting the urge to slap the tears off his face only because it would waste the blood.

“NO! HE’S MINE! YOU’RE ALL MINE AND I WILL NOT LOSE ANY OF YOU!”

Ben tried again to pull her away, almost succeeding despite Rey’s writhing and Kylo’s interference, and then the wind shifted, parting the trees and blowing the clouds away from the moon.

The moon.

The full moon, just hitting its peak.

Something like an explosion rocked them all, a wave of power bursting from somewhere deep inside.

She heard a voice, inside her.

_What would you give?_

And the answer was simple. _Anything._ **_Everything._**

She screamed at the wrenching, tearing sensation, and her world went black.

Rey woke hours later, bundled into a bed in the local hospital ward reserved for shapeshifters. She opened her eyes to find Ben and Kylo, both bandaged and looking a little worse for wear, perched in chairs that were almost comically small for them.

“ _Rey._ ” She blinked a few times, waiting until her eyes focused on Ben, on the way he smiled to see her awake. Kylo brushed one hand over her head and left the room.

“H—how long?”

“Just a few hours.” He was holding her hand, and she found she liked it, so she let him keep doing it.

“What happened?”

“I…have no idea. When the moonlight hit you…I don’t even know how to describe it. You were _glowing_ , Rey, with this silvery white light, and then it was just…gone, and you fell.” He seemed nervous, hesitant to tell her something, but he took a breath and opened his mouth to continue. He was interrupted by a figure in the doorway. Rey glanced up, returning Kylo’s smile as he stepped into the room, making way for the man behind him. He must have gone for a doctor or nurse when she woke up.

The man stepped into the room and Rey let out a cry, struggling to fight her way out of the bed.

“MATT!”

He smiled at her, an expression so like Ben’s, and Kylo’s. Matt let Kylo draw him closer, let Rey pull him into her arms as she cried. He seemed…hesitant, almost afraid as he returned her embrace. She paused, gasped, suddenly afraid of what saving Matt may have cost them. What price had she paid? What weren’t they telling her? “Where’s Randy?”

Matt seemed to sense her fear and he scrambled back from her, “Fine, fine, he’s fine. They have him in a room a few doors down. His spine’s bruised. They um, they said there may be permanent damage, but he’s alive, we’re all okay.”

“Then what’s wrong? What is it that you’re all so afraid to tell me?”

The three men looked at each other, a silent conversation born of a lifetime or reading one another’s gestures and micro-expressions. It was Kylo who stepped forward, hands moving slowly as he literally spelled out the answer for her.

_Y-O-U-R W-O-L-F I-S G-O-N-E._

She paused, brow wrinkled in confusion. That didn’t make sense. How…

She gasped, realizing that, sense or not, it was true. She felt lighter than she had her entire life. Empty.

Free.

Rey burst into sobs, letting them hold her as she cried for herself, for the woman she could never be again, and the one she finally _could_ be after a lifetime of being told it was impossible.

Time passed and Rey grieved sometimes for what she had lost. It was always hardest when her pack would slip their skins and _run_ , really run the way they were meant to.

Kylo stayed behind, those nights. He claimed he didn’t _run_ anymore. Not since Ben had saved him from his college advisor. The same man who was responsible for most of Kylo’s scars and the damage to his vocal cords. They’d told her the full truth, she knew Ben had killed the man for what he’d done to Kylo.

Kylo insisted it was over and that was all that mattered.

Rey agreed with Ben. Snoke’s death should have been slower, messier, and with a lot more pain.

They’d told her, too, about how Kylo had always been the alpha, but the night Ben brought him home, he’d offered his throat to his younger brother. How his cousins had gone along with it, validated Ben’s position as alpha. She knew Ben still had nightmares, sometimes, that he’d been content to live in his brother’s shadow. That he’d never _wanted_ to be alpha.

That he still didn’t.

But Kylo didn’t want to either, not anymore.

It was Rey who pointed out that they _were_ twins after all, and maybe they should approach it as a partnership. They’d seemed shocked not to have come up with the idea themselves.

Life had gotten far less stressful for everyone, then.

Matt had been the first to take a mate, officially. Rey had known from the moment she happened to introduce him to Rose that there would be a wedding, and pups, and a happily ever after. She clung to the knowledge in her darker moments, taking comfort in knowing her decision, her willingness to give up everything, had led to such happiness. In the end, she hadn’t even really sacrificed much. If never being able to change shape led to her finding a home and family of her own and her grandfather giving up his plans to hunt her down and control her were the result, well that just made it almost more of a reward than a sacrifice.

Within a year, Randy had called them into the living room, nervously tapping on the arm of his wheelchair as he shyly introduced them all to Kaydel. They hadn’t even known he was seeing anyone and suddenly Randy was announcing he was engaged. She was beautiful and smart and funny, and most importantly she was completely gone on Randy.

Rey and Ben hadn’t ever made anything official, not caring about weddings and legal documents, so the only one left was Kylo.

Sweet, scarred, amazing Kylo. Rey had been worried, in the beginning, being so drawn to Ben but with this strange connection to his brother as well. They hadn’t really addressed it at first, just become accustomed to all falling into the same bed at the end of the day. Eventually Kylo had returned to his own room, but Rey had found she couldn’t sleep without his warmth on the other side of her, and Kylo had started having nightmares again.

So, Ben sat them down, told them they were both idiots, and that he’d ordered a bigger bed.

They didn’t run into other packs very often, and when they did, well, no one needed to know that Kylo spent his nights beside Rey, on the opposite side of the bed from his brother.

Rumors flew, of course, but who cared about rumors?

And if (when) they had children someday, well technically identical twins had the same DNA…


End file.
